A group of 20 Ukrainian medical students have begun clinical placements at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

The students from Kharkiv, who are in their final two years of medical training, will be on placement at the hospital for seven weeks.

They will join experts in surgical and medical specialities and receive mentoring, supervision and bedside teaching from doctors to help them further progress at Kharkiv National Medical University and support Ukraine’s health service.

At the end of their placements, they will receive a learning portfolio to support their continued medical training.

One of the students, Zaur Badalov says the placement at Addenbrooke’s is a “big opportunity” for him.

“I was staying at a hospital in Kharkiv on the day the invasion happened; I was the first one to notice the windows shaking and woke the others,” he said.

“We were all in shock, and then that morning we had injured people coming into the hospital needing help.”

He added: “I learned a lot helping with the cases and seeing how the doctors treated people.

“Now I have a big opportunity to learn new methods of treatment in Cambridge and take the knowledge and the skills back to Ukraine and pass them onto others.”

As well as working at Addenbrooke’s, the medical students will learn vital skills at the nearby University of Cambridge school of clinical medicine, Royal Papworth Hospital and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust.

The University of Cambridge is co-ordinating the programme.

Paul Wilkinson, school of clinical medicine clinical dean, said: “Colleagues have worked incredibly hard to get this programme up and running in a short space of time.

“It’s action orientated and is about packing as much as possible into seven weeks.”

The medical placements are part of ‘Cambridge University help for Ukraine’, a developing package of support announced by the university earlier this year.

Daria Shiliakhova, Kharkiv National Medical University students’ mobility coordinator, said: “We need really good doctors with good practical skills who can help our people and save their lives.

“It’s a priority to prepare and give our students all the best we can, so the clinical placements in Cambridge are very important.”